Some family members of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 have accepted Gordon Taylor's apology after the PFA chief executive compared the disaster to the Ched Evans rape case.

Evans has maintained his innocence after serving half of a five-year sentence for raping a 19-year-old woman at a hotel back in 2011.

Taylor, who has worked for the Professional Footballers' Association since 1981, compared the 26-year-old's guilty verdict to the Hillsborough tragedy, when Liverpool fans were wrongly blamed for causing the deaths.

According to BBC Sport, Brenda Fox, who lost her son Steven in the disaster, said: "I accept that apology, no hard feelings to the man at all. I think it was a mistake. It was just one of those off the cuff things that people say and they shouldn't say and they regret."

Barry Devonside, who lost his son Christopher, also accepted the apology, but believes that Taylor needs to be more careful with what he says in the future.

"He was foolhardy to make comments in relation to Ched Evans and the Hillsborough disaster," Mr Devonside is quoted as saying. "There is no connection between the two whatsoever. This isn't the first time Gordon Taylor have been involved in a gaffe. He really needs to connect brain with mouth."

Evans was close to signing for Oldham Athletic, but the deal collapsed when board members and their families received "vile" threats.